FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT MAIN PRISON - PAGE 2

Overcrowding at the Lehigh County Prison Women's Annex in the last twoweeks drove the population at the jail in South Whitehall Township to a record high of 62 yesterday. Deputy Warden Tim Carver, in charge of the women's annex, said: "We are using just about all of our available beds." Prostitution arrests are a principal reason for the high count, he said. The annex has a maximum capacity of about 65, Carver reported. A week ago Jerry Bolin, director of corrections, reported a count of 60. At the main prison at 4th and Linden streets in Allentown, the count yesterday was 300, down from 325 a week earlier.

Population at Lehigh County Prison facilities climbed to a new high this week with a total of 437 inmates housed in the county's facilities on Wednesday, a prison official said yesterday. That peak dropped to a total head count of 425 yesterday. That figure included 317 in the main prison, which is the focus of federal class-action litigation that charges overcrowding and civil rights violations exist in the jail. A breakdown of population late yesterday afternoon showed 131 in the Old Jail; 124 in the New Jail; 23 on the workers tier, and 35 on the classification cellblock.

Preliminary work has started on the $6.5 million addition to Northampton County Prison, and the project architect yesterday said the heavier work should get started in a week or so. Architect Harold Scott, of the Architectural Studio in Easton, said crews have been doing surveying and other work this week and site clearing work and other heavy jobs should start soon. The general contractor is LML Corp. of Frazer, Chester County. The project is expected to add about 200 beds to the jail.

Seven Lehigh County commissioners, including the three freshman members of the board, participated in an orientation tour yesterday of several county prison facilities. At the main facility at 4th and Linden streets, the legislators' walk-through inspections were conducted by Warden Dale Meisel and Deputy Warden James Bloom. It was the board's first group tour since a federal court order forced the county to reduce population from more than 400 to 242 men. Yesterday's head count was 235. While the 123-year-old prison remains an antiquated facility, the board saw a marked change in at least one condition of confinement -- things are a lot less crowded.

An inmate who left Lehigh County Prison for his job at an Allentown car wash yesterday afternoon was on the lam for about five hours before turning himself in, police said. Gary Meinhart is the fourth escapee from area prisons in the past month. Meinhart never reported to his job at 17th and Tilghman streets, but turned himself in at 7:45 p.m., county Corrections Director Richard O. Klotz said. A bulletin of Meinhart's escape was broadcast on police radio in the afternoon. Klotz said Meinhart will lose his work-release status and be returned to the main prison.

The Lehigh County Department of Corrections has moved 10 more work release inmates into the Community Corrections Center on N. 6th Street, Allentown, to move eligible prisoners into the program and make more beds available in the main prison, an official said yesterday. The center held 93 inmates yesterday. "There were as many as 15 to 20 inmates who were court ordered to work release who were not able to go on work release because we had no beds," center superintendent Ed Sweeney said.

Lehigh County's prison population reached an all-time high yesterday with an overall total of 481 people being held in county penal institutions, Director of Corrections Jerry Bolin said. The headcount inside the main facility was 337 - jamming cellblocks and forcing prison officials to use a weight room and day room for bunk space, Bolin said. A breakdown on the tiers showed that the Civil War-era Old Jail was at capacity with 136 inmates; as was the turn-of-the-century New Jail with 122. The classification tier, where new committals are held until they can be properly placed in the facility, had 42 inmates, Bolin said.

The Lehigh County Prison commissary came up about $500 short in goods this week, a disappearance that has prompted an investigation and a change in policy that will prevent inmates from working in the jailhouse store, according to Director of Corrections Glen Jeffes. Prison staff discovered that cigarettes, envelopes and telephone tickets were missing when they opened the commissary in the main prison Thursday, Jeffes said. There were no signs of a forced entry, he added. The commissary is a small store where inmates may, on a restricted basis, buy toiletries, snacks, cigarettes and other small items such as writing paper and envelopes.

Inmate population at Lehigh County Prison fell to 227 yesterday, a number that puts the county in compliance with today's deadline to ease overcrowding at the historically troubled jail. Yesterday's opening of a community corrections center for women in center-city Allentown also provided the spill-over space needed to reduce population at the Women's Annex in South Whitehall Township to 48. Both prisons were the focus of a federal class-action lawsuit instituted by inmates that claimed the prisons were overcrowded and that the conditions of confinement were unconstitutional.

The area of Northampton County Prison from which Farley Major and Jayson Roche Ruiz escaped early yesterday was pressed into service to house inmates in recent years because of overcrowding at the facility. Deputy Warden James Onembo said it is used for general population inmates considered less dangerous than others. The former passageway, known as "the horn," contains bunk beds and serves as a dormitory-style living arrangement for as many as 20 inmates, according to Onembo. Sixteen were housed there at the time of the escape.